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Jason Lewis

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i went pheasant hunting yesterday with my "new" percussion 13ga SxS that i purchased from wirehairman. the gun worked beautifully with an 1 1/8oz bismuth #4's and 60grn swiss 2F.

i was by myself in a whole compartment of the controlled pheasant hunt area i was hunting. since i don't have a dog, i do alot of walking and occasionally get a bird or two. this morning there was about 4" of snow on the ground so the birds stick out agains the white.

i began with my usuall strategy of working the narrow strips of milo that are left in the fields. this particular case, the milo was 8 rows wide and right next to a small wooded valley, which the birds tend to run for when spooked. this strip is about 400yrds long. i started walking on the inside rows and about 60yrds infront of me i can see a hen running away from me and starting to duck into the woods. she stopped long enough for me to close the distance and then stepped out offering a clear shot at about 30yrds. i brought the old SxS to bear and BLAM! the right barrel roars and i see a hen laying there, dead as a door nail. once i finally calm down from my excitement, i uncapped the unfired left barrel, placed the ramrod down the left barrel and reloaded the right barrel.

already thrilled with my day, i decided to continue up the strip and see what else may or may not be in there. it was overcast and around 14 degrees with a light wind, really a nice day. there are little blackbirds flying everywhere, and i can hear a few scattered shots in the distance from other hunters, but i'm here all by myself with a muzzleloading shotgun from the 19th century, and have a bird in the bag.

as i continued up the strip, i flushed a rooster about 60yrds away and he of course flew straight for the tree line and never offered a shot. however, i was quickly nearing the end of the milo strip. i cocked both hammers and got ready too shoot just incase i flushed a bird. 40yrds.. nothing, 30yrds, still nothing... 20yrds, nothing.. 10yrds, nothing... 5 yrds, a hen flushes about 10ft on the left and starts heading back down the milo strip. i swung and fired the right barrel.. miss, she's still gliding down, left barrel.. got her! she's hit! i found her about 70yrds away inbetween the milo rows.

this all happened in about 30min, as i was walking on cloud nine back to the truck i ran into a couple of other hunters, and after chatting for a minute they offered to carry one of my birds that way i could go hunting with them. i said" well, i appriciate it, but i don't want to shoot your birds" which they still wanted me to go just to have another gun along for back up and help working fields and such. so i said "okay, if you guys don't mind." we flushed two more bird that morning, both roosters. they missed both of them and i got them both with one shot. at this point i both wanted to excuse myself and had too because of bag limits. so we parted ways and i came home. it was a very good day, and since i even got to hunt longer thanks to the other hunters who were kind enough to let me hunt with them for a little while.

the downside to this story, is that as i was cleaning the second bird i realized i forgot to take pictures :redface:
 
Sounds like a good hunt with a muzzleloader...and that's what its all about...the "how" not the "how many"
:hatsoff:
 
:thumbsup: How many pheasants are around the Davenport area? I've heard there are a few around Iowa City.
 
If only they had cameras in the old days, there would of been one in every possibles bag :wink:

Pheasants and a front loader, perfect :hatsoff:

Brits.
 
luie b said:
:thumbsup: How many pheasants are around the Davenport area? I've heard there are a few around Iowa City.


not many, i do most of my pheasant hunting on the IL state parks that have controlled pheasant hunts. on those they are either sex hunts, with the state bag limit of two per day per hunter. i go over to Kewanee at Johnson Sauk state park, it's 25$ for resident hunters and 35$ for non resident. it's about 45 min from my house. the birds are a mix of pen raised and native birds, and they are quite lively.
 
as requested, shotgun pics.

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